Mysteries in Jesus’ Teaching

The Forgotten Secret of Spiritual Power

The Gateway to Fulfilment and Supernatural Joy

Deny yourself Die to self Crucify the flesh Take up your cross A living sacrifice Dry theology? Outdated platitudes? Spiritual mystery? The heart of Christianity?

The world says love yourself, Jesus says deny yourself

Jesus and the entire Bible poured much effort into expounding this concept, but few people grasp what Jesus longs for us to know because it sounds so dreary, even scary, that we are loathe to investigate it. And it is only those who seek, who find. Only if we delve deeply into this truth, will we ever discover how exciting it is.

Denying ourselves makes not the slightest sense until we realize we have a God who is so devoted to us that he eagerly fills us with his goodness when we trust him enough to give him room to move.

Few non-Christians can face the truth of what they are without Christ – morally corrupt and doomed to hell – but true Christians can face the full truth because we know we are not without Christ. We can make what to the world seems enormous sacrifices because we have a God who delights in looking after our interests better than we ever could. All our Lord requires is for us to take our hands off the steering wheel of our lives, letting him steer us to eternal fulfilment.

The Perfect Marriage

What is the quickest, easiest way to soar to cloud nine and become wealthy, honoured and the envy of millions? Fall in love and become united in marriage with someone rich, famous and adorable. God not only fits the bill like no one else, he has the love and integrity to remain devoted to you forever.

To illustrate the consequences of being spiritually united to Jesus, let’s put it in financial terms, whilst remembering that it applies to your abilities, moral achievements, wisdom, in fact everything about you. You have $154.75 in the bank. Jesus has trillions. He wants to have joint bank accounts with you so that you can enjoy his trillions and delight in them as being your own. Instead of being excited, however, you see problems. You worry about what Jesus might do with your $154.75. And if Jesus really kept his word and you gained his riches, you’re concerned that everyone would know that those trillions became yours only because of Jesus’ generosity and love for you, not because of your hard work or skill. Although you could spend the trillions as if they were yours, you could never be credited with the honour of having earned them.

If, however, you refuse to merge Jesus’ assets with yours, you can continue to boast that you have earned every cent you possess. So you have a choice: risk your $154.75 and lose your right to boast that you earned all your money and you will have trillions, or retain your right to boast and you will have $154.75. This creates a dilemma: we like the thought of being rich, but boasting makes us feel good. The Lord gave us feelings and he would like us to enjoy even the nice feeling that boasting creates. Here’s how to do it: “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31; 2 Corinthians 10:17). When we truly understand the utter oneness that we have with Christ, boasting about his greatness and perfection will excite us even more than when we used to boast about our own puny achievements.

We all know what a thrilling, fulfilling experience being in love is. It’s not perfect – there is usually a hint of selfishness in being in love – but it is a giant leap in the direction of what the Bible calls dying to self. When in love we hardly think about ourselves other than wanting to make ourselves more desirable for the one we love. Our thoughts and dreams revolve around the other person. There is a huge shift away from ourselves. The one we love becomes the centre of our universe. Does this make us feel half dead?

Is this losing of our pre-occupation with ourselves a painful, miserable experience? Of course not. Anyone in love has never felt more excited or more alive. Falling in love with the King of kings, the most exciting Person in the universe, is the ultimate solution to self-consciousness and low self-esteem. The answer is not to try to boost ourselves, but to delight in our God and make him the centre of our universe; to thrill in his perfection.

Everything you could ever hope for is found in Jesus. Get Jesus and you get honour, knowledge, joy, fulfilment, power – everything. Delight in all his wonderful qualities, knowing that they are all yours because he is yours. Seek any of these without Jesus, however, and even if you temporarily obtain a little, you will eventually end up with nothing.

Scripture indicates that although King David let many of his sons run wild, he carefully trained Solomon from childhood. Presumably, David was grooming Solomon to be king from a young age. Solomon did not take the throne until he was fairly mature. All the ground-breaking work of establishing and structuring the monarchy had already been done by Saul and David. So Solomon had many reasons to be confident that he had all it takes to be a good king. After he had reigned for a while the Lord offered Solomon whatever one thing he asked for. He could have asked for security. A few of his subjects would like him dead, and some foreign countries that were subject to him would like to rebel, whereas some other nations would like to invade and plunder Israel. But he did not ask for security. He could have asked for world-wide fame. But he didn’t.

He could have asked for wealth. But he didn’t. He humbled himself so much as to ask for what he must have been tempted to think he already had – the wisdom to rule. And he sought it not so he could boast of his intellectual prowess but so he could better serve God and God’s people. Humble yourself to see inadequacies within you and you will be exalted. Lower yourself, seeking to serve, and you will be raised high. Because Solomon sought wisdom, he got everything – wisdom, security, fame and wealth. Jesus is the Wisdom of God. Sacrifice everything to get him. Get him and you get everything.

“For Me”

“Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it,” said Jesus (Matthew 16:25). Permit me to expound a little on one aspect of this divine principle:

Whoever tries to preserve his or her self-esteem will end up losing it, but whoever deliberately loses self-esteem – lowering his opinion of himself or exposing himself to ridicule for Jesus’ sake – will find genuine and lasting honour. Try to maintain or boost your self-esteem and you will end up riddled with shame. Take the opposite course for Jesus’ sake, however, and you’ll brim with joy and honour forever.

Central to the promise “whoever loses his life for me will find it,” are the words, “for me.” It is Jesus, and he alone, who turns the impossible into a spiritual law you can bet your life on. He is the all-powerful Lord, who transforms a fanciful idea into an immutable law. With him, a suggestion we would otherwise never dare attempt becomes a plan of action only a fool would refuse.

To understand the power and the necessity of Jesus adding those words, “for me,” recall the little boy in the midst of the famished thousands. For the boy to offer the crowds his lunch would be a noble but futile gesture. So rather than give the first hundred people half a crumb each, he gave his lunch to Jesus. Making Jesus the central figure transformed the situation. Suddenly, not only the boy, but thousands were being fed with something that moments before was utterly inadequate.

Only after the boy had given his all and passed the point of no return, did what had seemed a foolish sacrifice prove to be the smartest thing he had ever done. The secret is to hand everything over to Jesus and then wait for him to move. Give yourself to Jesus, and he will give himself to you. Lose yourself in him, and you will find yourself in God – no longer restricted to human possibilities.

Just as the boy could not expect to be fed after giving away his lunch, so people cannot expect to thrive emotionally if they give away their self-esteem – unless they give it to Jesus. Then a miracle takes place.

Suppose your computer crashed and no matter how hard your tried, you could not fix it. Your only hope would be to give your computer away – to a repairer. You do this in faith that he will not only fix it with the care that he would if it were his own, but that he will then return the computer to you. With this same trusting attitude, we hand our lives over to Jesus, believing that not only will the all-powerful Lord do for us things that are humanly impossible, but believing that he will not exploit us.

He will, in fact, pursue our best interests with greater passion than we ourselves would. This is backed by something infinitely stronger than any business agreement. It is backed by the unstoppable love of Almighty God who has invested everything – even the agonizing death of his only Son – on ensuring that you get his very best.

Too often we try applying a spiritual law with Jesus left out of the equation. We might as well expect a car to work with the engine left out of it. And then, when our attempt without Jesus doesn’t work, we have the audacity to imagine God has let us down!

Suppose Jeremy, a highly regarded investment advisor, tells you there is money to be made in the stock market and suggests you let him advise you. Off you go and make your own investments without consulting him. You lose badly, then blame him for your loss. “You told me there is money to be made in the stock market,” you complain bitterly. “Yes, and those who have come to me for investment advice have done handsomely,” comes the reply, “but you thought you could do it without me.”

“Before doing anything I always asked myself, “What would Jeremy do?”
“You asked yourself. You didn’t ask me.”
“I took notice of your associates’ advice.”
You didn’t ask me.
“Well . . .” you squirm, “I sometimes asked you.”
“And did you follow my advice exactly?”
“Exactly? That’s a bit much! I followed the general spirit of what you said.”
“And now that you have lost everything you know that wasn’t enough,” replies Jeremy, with pain in his voice.

Next Part Bringing it together

© Copyright 2000, Grantley Morris. May be freely copied in whole or in part provided: it is not altered; this entire paragraph is included; readers are not charged; if used in a webpage, the new page is significantly different to this one. Many more compassionate, inspiring, sometimes hilarious writings available free online at www.net-burst.net Freely you have received, freely give. For use outside these limits, consult the author.